CanJam 2014 Report From The RMAF 2014 Show

Sonic Satori CanJammin' I Wanna CanJam With You... Part I
Report By Michael Mercer

Another CanJam highlight for me was getting to hear the brand new MrSpeakers Alpha Prime closed-back planar-magnetic headphones that I had the privilege of reviewing just prior to their debut at CanJam for Headphone.Guru! However, since designer Dan Clark was working to improve the driver design up 'til the last minute – he requested that I bring my review pair in for a small update, and he asked me to hear the full-production ready Alpha Primes at his CanJam table. Where'd I go to hear em? Over to the pair flanking the brand new Cavalli Liquid Prime with a Nordost Heimdall 2 headphone cable attached to it of course! That combination was resplendent. I was also thankful to have spent the night with the Liquid Crimson – which isn't a ton of time but I listened intently and grasped much of its magic, so I could hear the difference that Dan talked to me about, and I'm glad I brought my review pair in for the update! There was more air and dimension in the upper-midrange and higher frequencies. The sound was also more cohesive overall than I heard with my review pair – and I was psyched about the sonic performance of those. Dan Clark is really pushing himself these days design-wise, and I'm so jacked that I finally hear a headphone from Dan that actually reflects him as a person. Don't get me wrong. I loved his other cans, and owned 'em all! But the Alpha Prime is just plain fun to listen to music with. It's engrossing, excitable dynamically, and it doesn't pound you over the head either. I don't know if that makes any sense but – well, it's also easy to listen to for extended listening sessions is what I'm trying to say. I didn't have any concerns with listening fatigue at all during the review process, and that says something about Clark's engineering approach. After all – Dan Clark is also a fellow music lover! It makes sense his products would reflect that passion.

Another piece of personal audio heaven I finally got to hear this year at CanJam? Fostex TH900 headphones. I owe a debt of gratitude to Drew Baird at Moon Audio for pressing my cousin and I about these cans! It was another case of perfect timing too. The audio Gods were looking out for me all weekend. It was a wonderful feeling, and one I didn't take for granted! Especially since CanJam was a madhouse! But I also went before and after the crowds, and hung out with my friends otherwise. Well, since the TH900s were something that I was contemplating for months, I had to bring all my DAPs to the demo. Yes, I know, it's a sickness... (Steven says "Can you feel that? Are you down with the sickness?" One of fave hard-hittin' tracks to drum to BTW. Michael, you've woken up 'the demon' in me!)

I have to admit, this was another listening session that stretched beyond my admittedly mediocre expectation about enjoying these headphones. This was because I was never moved by a Fostex headphone before. I used to love their DJ mixers though, but no cans I ever tried made me want to keep them. All of this has changed since I got to spend some time with sources I know well: Astell&Kerns' AK240 and my Glove Audio A1 DAC/Amp for Astell&Kern AK120 (that I own). The other component with my iPod Classic as music storage is the RAL I bragged about earlier in the report. The battery-powered Amp/DAC that handled DSD for $350 bucks (as well as iDevices and PCs). My critical listening was done on the AK240 and the Glove Audio A1 (which I reviewed for Part-time Audiophile). I was transfixed. Their sound was lively and flowy, like the "liquid" sound I refer to when describing the new Cavalli Liquid Crimson. I felt like I was close to the music without being bombarded by the intensity of it. It was easy to let the sound wash over me, and it impressed me equally when it came to underground electronic music, like Goldie's classic "Inner City Life" off his legendary Timeless record, or the new-wave of instrumental madness and genius in Joy Division'd Unknown Pleasures – the TH900s handled it all with style and grace, and some balls (pardon my French). They were also light enough for me to wear for hours without discomfort. I told the courteous and funny Hiroaki Kawahata (Sales Manager for Fostex) that had my Sennheiser HD800s not been a gift of my late friend Lee Weiland of Cryoparts, and have a serial number under 600; I might consider selling them for a pair of the Fostex TH900s! That also says more, I believe, that a multi-sentence breakdown of what turned me on about them. Luckily we worked out a review when I'm ready. I hope, once he saw I got lost in the tunes right after asking him to take a picture of me listening maybe showed a bit of my love for the experience.

Something else that I love about RMAF is that, since most of us stay at the same hotel, we can have fun into the early-morning hours. This year we managed to have a couple of after-parties in my room: The Enjoy the Music.com crew was there, my Headphone.Guru and Audio360.org crew were also enjoying some downtime there together. With Mr. Tyll Hertsens making occasional appearances, it made the get-togethers feel complete. Though I missed my Part-Time Audiophile and Digital Audio Review gang! I must say however, that no matter how traveled-out he was, it was awesome to spend time with my good friend Alex Rosson, CEO and Co-Founder of Audeze on Saturday night. We haven't seen each other in months, and I knew he had to spin for the CanJam Beerfest (last year we played together at his behest – but I wanted to watch his CDJ mastery this year). I would've jumped at the chance to play this year, but I'm still a vinyl DJ. Hey, since I'm not a pro anymore, I can play what I want, whenever it is possible! Alex Rosson plays Pioneer CDJs like I play vinyl, and I'm in awe of him for that. Anyway he arranged for a warehouse-party sized-sound system, and as soon as thing got really crackin' something went down with the hotel and the purveyor of the growlers of beer that have always been offered over the years without issue. I think it was a simple case of "more older audiophiles found out about the great beer at cheap prices", and thus came to the Beerfest to get nice and buzzed on good beer and go out to dinner. We could usually keep the party rocking until later in the evenings the previous years, because it was mostly Head-Fi'ers, the members of Head-fi.org, and other personal audio brethren that are manufacturers and members of the Head-Fi community. That love of the personal audio arts, specifically, banded us together back then. But for whatever reason people talked about the Beerfest as a means to promote personal audio, but the party was a place for those of us that lived it to celebrate that fact. Anyway, from behind the decks and the sound system all we could see were people arguing, so Alex just kept on rockin' the decks, and people started realizing what a sick sound system there was in front of them! Imagine that. Anyway – the night got cut short because of the aforementioned drama.

Lucky for me, Alex was starving and wanted steak, so I hooked up the reservation for 10pm at the local steakhouse for 12 people (the Audeze crew, etc). Yeah, I honestly don't know what I said to make that happen, but it most've been good, because when we got their some colleagues were sitting at the bar wondering how I nailed down the table for 12! I couldn't even tell them wholeheartedly what I did to make it happen. Anyway everybody ate like kings and we ended up back at my room afterwards. I was psyched to have everyone from fellow 360'ers and Guru-men Frank Iacone and Chris Sommovigo to Harmony Hicks and her man Scott along for the laughs! Alex Rosson was beat, but enjoys engaging with members of the community that respect each other and live for the sound of our music. He also had a spot to crash in my room. Nonetheless, it felt great to connect with like-minded people. How we ever managed to make Warren Chi's (of Audio360.org and Head-Fi.org) 7am breakfast at the pancake house the following day is something I honestly can't recall wholeheartedly either! And I didn't drink. I barely slept from Friday to Sunday, but my sixteenth wind kicked in. Alex and I even managed to get together for a live-streaming chat at Enjoy the Music.TV on Sunday which can be seen at the website. Rosson's energy to get on a plane late-Sunday afternoon baffled me. Though his stay was limited, I'm grateful we got to spend some time with mutual friends and his Audeze crew. I hope to see him in Vegas for CES. Audeze's got a lot of real-estate at the Convention Center for CES 2015! I want to be there for that! There's a great deal of exciting things happening in personal audio today. CanJam is always the most superb looking glass into that different pursuit: Music played through headphones as opposed to loudspeakers.

I'm thankful I can't find anything to complain about this year at RMAF! Marjorie and her staff of tireless volunteers, many of them family members, did a tremendous job as always! I have a couple more juicy audio bits from CanJam I'll be sharing very soon here on Enjoy the Music.com! In the meantime, I need to say that this year’s CanJam was one of my favorites, and also hats off to Jude Mansilla and his Head-Fi team of Joseph Zwik and Warren Chi for their hard work this year! I could've used two more days! It was memorable.

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